CARLETON, Mich. (WXYZ) — A local nonprofit is prepping to make sure 1,000 veterans feel appreciated this Christmas, one stuffed stocking at a time.
The Friday after Thanksgiving, a group of a little under 100 volunteers with Stockings 4 Soldiers gathered to fill the stockings with an assortment of goods from Chapstick to socks and even a Christmas card from an elementary school student.
“I feel obligated. It’s a part of my service to my country," volunteer and veteran Murray Davis said.
This will be the nonprofit's sixth year donating stockings to inpatients at Veterans Affairs hospitals across Michigan. This year, they are also donating to the Patriot Place in Gaylord and another VA hospital in Sandusky, Ohio.
“We don’t ask if they’re active duty or inactive duty. They’re just veterans that are in the hospital on that given date,” President Milt Bryant said.
The items will be delivered on Christmas Eve.
"The nurses say that that’s the loneliest time for our veterans in the hospital on Christmas Eve,” Bryant said.
Most of the volunteers Friday were veterans themselves like Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi.
"It makes me feel really good because you see actually what goes in it and you see the other side, who ever receives it with a big smile on their face. It just gives me chills knowing that you’re going to make somebody’s day a lot better,” Bazzi said.
Stockings 4 Soldiers is run off 100% volunteers and donations.
